(/JJGHT DECEMBER 3, 1910.
OCTAVE CHANUTE. I832-I9I0.
OCTAVE CHANUTE is dead, and one of the greatest
pioneers of flight has closed a long and honoured
association with the world's progress. Born in Paris on
February T8th, 1832, Chanute was over 78 years old
when he passed away at his Chicago residence on
Thursday of last week, November 24th. The greater
part of his life he spent in America, and spent it to such
purpose, indeed, that before he took any active part in
the furtherance of aviation he had already attained to the
head of his profession as civil engineer. His particular
work was the construction of railways, and at different
periods he was engineer-in-chief to many of the principal
and now famous trunk systems of that great country.
Sometimes he found himself in charge of the construction
of two or more lines at the same time, as, for instance,
when he was chief engineer of a section of the Kansas
City, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railway ; the Leavenworth,
Lawrence and Galveston Railroad ; a connecting line
between thesetwobelonging totheSantaFe; anda northern
section of the Atchison and Nebraska Line. Among
other positions, he occupied for a period of ten years
the post of chief engineer to the Erie Railway, and by
his brother professional men was in due course honoured
with the Presidency of the American Society of Civil
Engineers. It is only proper to refer to these attainments,
because Chanute did not associate himself actively with
the progress of flight until his later years, when he had
retired from the more exacting duties of his profession ;
and many Students of aviation may possibly be unaware
of what type of man it was who thus gave his unstinted
support to the inception of a movement that was then
not only embryonic in its infancy, but commonly regarded
as having a very problematical future.
Attracted to a study of the principles underlying flight,
Octave Chanute adopted in the first instance the emi
nently practical proceeding of passing in review the
experiments of others in order to find out whereabouts
he might most properly commence research on his own
account and in what direction it might be most profitably
pursued. These researches, originally taking the form
of articles, subsequently developed into his famous work
entitled " Progress in Flying Machines," which was pub
lished in New York in 1894, and has for some time been
out of print. It is, without question, the most valuable
work of its kind in existence, for it consists of a very
close although very concise study of practically every
experiment in aviation that had been made up to that
time.
Octave Chanute, however, was not content with
learning about the experiments of others, for he was
keen on furthering progress by his own practical work
and he decided to give such time as he could to that
purpose. Like Lilienthal, he grasped the importance of
gliding flight, and having published an article strongly
recommending others to pursue this art, he decided to
institute practical experiments, if not exactly personally—
for he was already 64 years of age—at any rate at his
personal expense. He therefore secured the services of
A. M. Herring, a much younger enthusiast than himself,
who had previously made some gliding flights of his own
on a Lilienthal apparatus in 1894. This machine Herring
rebuilt, and also another on very different lines, suggested
by Chanute. The apparatus was completed in June,
1896, and transferred to a suitable site on the shores of
Lake Michigan, near St. Joseph, for trial. Chanute's
glider consisted of no fewer than six pairs of wings, and
experiments were conducted to find the most satisfactory
disposition of the surfaces, of which five pairs of wings
were ultimately superposed, while the sixth pair formed a
tail. The most important new principle introduced into
Chanute's glider, however, was that of maintaining
equilibrium by means of moving the wings instead of the
pilot. Lilienthal maintained his balance in the air by
moving his body, within the frame of the machine, in any
direction that might be required, and the long continued
success of his experiments was unquestionably due in a
large measure to his gymnastic skill and strength in
performing these evolutions. Chanute, on the contrary,
made the surfaces movable instead of the man, and
inasmuch as his machine was designed so that the move
ment in question should take place automatically—that
is to say, without any action of control on the part
of the pilot—it is to Chanute that we must give
the credit of having first definitely attempted to pro
duce a naturally stable machine. Reasonable success
attended experiments with this devioe, but the
principal idea of Chanute and his assistants being,
apparently, to try various schemes, other machines were
also built and tested. One of them was a biplane trussed
with struts and diagonal wire bracing, which became, there
fore, the prototype of the modern machine of this class.
Chanute's experiments lasted until September of that year,
(1896) when the camping party broke up for the winter,
and they were not afterwards renewed. Chanute was even
then 64 years of age, and although attracted to such
experiments with all the fervour of youth he doubtless
deemed it wise to moderate his personal participation in
such experience. Moreover, the trials had served their
purpose so far as Chanute was concerned and their
results coming from such an authority in the engineering
world induced a widespread interest in the subject.
Although ceasing experiments on his own behalf,
Chanute maintained an unabated interest in the practical
side of the subject, and, good sportsman that he was, he
went into camp with the Brothers Wright when they
established themselves at Kitty Hawrk in the summer of
1900. Chanute stayed with the Brothers Wright for
about a week, and the close association of these three
minds must have been an important factor in the rapid
development of the Wright machine. Indeed, it has
always seemed to us that Chanute's active interest in the
subject at large was of greater service to its development
than his own active work, useful as that was, for he was
acquainted with the researches of everyone and he knew
most of the workers of his own time between whom and
whose work he helped to forge links whereby we can
now see and take advantage of the uninterrupted chain
of practical experience that was commenced by Lilienthal
and was first coupled up to the train of modern civilisation
by the historic achievement of power-driven flight on the
part of the Brothers Wright in December, 1903.
It is not given to everyone to see the fruition of their
ideals as Octave Chanute saw them in the success of
aviation, especially when they are already advanced in
years when the art in question has scarcely begun.
Chanute, however, must have seen many interesting
changes in his life, for it extended over a period thai
covered the introduction of almost every modern con
venience. That a man born in the " thirties " should end
his days honoured as a pioneer of flight, is itself -an all
sufficient tribute to the calibre of his mind—to the
progressive spirit of Octave Chanute.
984